Tag Archives: YNPN

I’m so excited! YNPN Des Moines is hosting our first mini conference and after party on Jan. 8, 2015 to celebrate our second programming year. We’ll be exploring topics in nonprofit management through the lens of art, a theme that was inspired by our hosts, the Des Moines Social Club, and a desire to have a Powerpoint-free conference. NON-CON attendees will creatively address challenges in the nonprofit sector and enjoy a space to meet and learn from potential collaborators.

Who’s it for? The event is open to professionals of all ages and experience levels. Whether you currently work at a charitable organization or have goals to be a change-maker in our community, you will come away excited and energized to fulfill your mission. It’s FREE for YNPN Des Moines members or $45 for the general public. (I’ll let you in on a secret – the membership is a steal!) Get tickets here.

The best thing about planning this is working with a team of our up-and coming leadership, and pulling in amazing artists and nonprofit pros to facilitate.

Laura of XO-LP will bring her nonprofit pro background and super illustrator skills together as part of a team going inside the mind of fundraising.

Emily, a nonprofit pro by day and yoga instructor by early morning/evening will drop some burnout prevention tactics.

Kristopher and Emily of RUN DSM will be there with all of their characteristic energetic reciprocity.

Nick Renkoski, a man of many talents, will facilitate an unconventional opening session.

I had to get out of my comfort zone to recruit sponsors and am so thankful to the companies who stepped up to support this event! We’re splitting our sponsor dollars with the Social Club, so it was cool to find a way to contribute to an organization I’ve appreciated for a long time. Please join us Jan. 8!

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A few weeks ago, I was invited to share my thoughts on womanhood for a video promoting “Generations of Strength,” an event that Sonia Ashe and a group connected to the Young Women’s Resource Center are putting together as part of the Juice Charity Challenge.

The mission of YWRC is close to my heart, so I was excited to help. (The organization supports, educates and advocates for young women ages 10-21. YWRC hosts small groups and individual support focused on self-esteem, healthy relationships and reproductive health.) Plus, I met Sonia through YNPN Des Moines and am pumped to have her leadership in the Des Moines nonprofit community.

The first video session we recorded was accidentally erased, so I got to record again, this time at the YWRC headquarters, paired with an awesome young lady. It was so much fun to hear her speak with confidence. Although I’m twice her age, we had a great conversation. It kind of cuts off in the video, but I was talking about how this was my biggest lesson as a 28-year-old woman:

I’m not at all involved in planning this event, but plan to attend and would love to hang out with you there!

Generations of Strength will bring local women and community leaders of all ages to discuss the challenges women have faced over the past century, share knowledge, and identify opportunities to better support each other as a community!

This reception-style event will encourage open conversation over snacks and drinks, with live music and optional activities. We will also welcome speakers from each generation to share their perspective and offer advice, and raise funds to sponsor 50 teen girls to attend a six-week Problem Solving course with the Young Women’s Resource Center.

“KINDNESS IS LIKE HOLDING an ice cube in your hands. It stings, but then the cold dissolves; what at first you could barely hold becomes something you cannot let go. My father’s request for a quiet ambulance came from a man so familiar with kindness that the sting was completely gone: the ice was no longer cold, but one with the flesh.” – Your Kindness Is Good for You by Casey N. Cep

The other story, which I can’t find online, was in Real Simple magazine (I think), an essay by (I think?) the Chicago-based author Elizabeth Berg. Berg wrote about how she regretted not give money to a man who boarded a train, asking for help to pay for hospital bills for his son. The man asked his son, who he pushed in a stroller, to show those on the train his scar. When nobody opened their wallets, told his son quietly to thank them anyway. It was a story about not being stingy with kindness — to people like that man and son who might desperately need it, or to people whose plight isn’t so plainly on display.

Basically, it comes down to this: Take every opportunity to be kind. It’s good for everyone, even you.

Only semi-related: If you’re around this weekend and you want to hang out with me EARLY Sunday, you should volunteer for the YNPN shift at the Drake Relays Road Race. We’re giving one of our volunteers $500 to donate to the charity of her/his choice! Details: http://eepurl.com/SUbaT

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I’m incredibly proud to be part of the leadership team that’s worked to get the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network (YNPN) Des Moines off the ground over the past year and a half. Yes, that’s me, ginormously preggers, standing on a chair trying to get everyone’s attention for announcements at our Super Swag Social in late May. I got everyone’s attention. Ha.

Building this organization has been one of the more intense exercises in collaboration/delegation and such a lesson in what awesomeness can happen when you trust a group of enthusiastic people to run with their ideas. I’ve learned so much from the team of volunteers who’ve all put in crazy hours to plan events and get our organizational documents in order.

We celebrate the one-year anniversary of our official launch this month! If you work in nonprofits, want to work in nonprofits or feel like meeting idealist-type people and having a good time, please join us at our 1st Birthday Bash on Tuesday, Jan. 14 at Jasper Winery.

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Here are a few thoughts I wrote up about the nature of launching a project for the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network (YNPN) of Des Moines blog . We had an amazing turnout (100 people – lots of new faces!) at our Launch Party on Thursday! Check out our Facebook page for photos from the event.

I’m no Olympian, but I imagine (the feeling of launching a project) must be what a diver or gymnast feels in midair, as their body twirls and they try to discern from their swirling surroundings whether or not they’ll land on their feet.

Launching a project is a lot of planning, even more communication and follow-through on plans. It’s pretty simple in theory: Figure out what you’re going to do, let people know you’re doing it and then deliver on that promise. But, in my experience, each stage involves overcoming a dose of fear. Sure, you’ve done your research and it seems like a good idea. You’re enthused! And then the doubt creeps in. What if you’re the only one who’s excited about it? You take the time to cobble together a social media presence, and then wonder if you have what it takes to feed that beast and contribute to the conversation in a way that will make people take note. You have your checklist of to-dos, only to be sidelined by other projects or a case of procrastination, or unanswered calls and e-mails. Get through all three and that’s the takeoff.

And then there’s phase two. To borrow an Iowa cliche: You built it, but will they really come? After all that work, you hope so. But not every gymnast sticks a routine, especially the first time. And if they do show up, is your project sustainable? Can you keep the momentum alive?

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One of the big reasons I left full-time journalism was because I was so inspired by all of the amazing people I’d write about. They were doing things that were interesting and community-building. Reporting for Juice gave me a great view of what was going on and what was needed and I and was (literally) taking notes on how I wanted to get involved. Sometimes working at a newspaper creates lots of conflicts of interest and makes it difficult to pursue leadership roles.

Volunteering was a huge part of my life growing up and when I think about what brings out the best in me, I look back to the roles I had in the community where I was raised. I love Des Moines and I feel like there are so many opportunities to “be the change,” but I do also notice that because of the small-town nature of our city, leadership is sometimes passed down generation to generation.

We have an amazing group of philanthropically minded families in Des Moines, but I’ve sensed that as transplant you really have to make the effort and raise your hand, so to speak, or you’re not necessarily going to get called on. This was a strange lesson for me, because where I grew up, I had established myself from a young age as a dedicated volunteer. My best friend and I both won Rotary Youth Service awards, and my weekends were more likely spent dressed in historical attire giving tours of a turn-of-the-century schoolhouse than hanging out at the mall. When you move to a new place, you can’t rest on a reputation you built as a teen.

Now, almost two years after I’ve left journalism, I feel like I’ve had the opportunity to find fulfilling full-time work and truly pursue some cool side-projects. It was awesome and exhausting* to help pull together the July TEDxDesMoines event with a small, dedicated team. And last weekend, I helped launch a new group called YNPN Des Moines, a startup chapter of the national Young Nonprofit Professionals Network.

I wrote awhile back about “my problem with non” and growing into a new professional identity. The team steering the formation of YNPN is all about building up the fantastic network of people who do good in Des Moines, in hopes that we can foster collaboration, share resources and help each other become even better versions of our personal and professional selves. We’re really excited to get it off the ground, and then hopefully pass the torch to others who are motivated and have time to take on the group.

If volunteering was a big part of how you grew up, but you haven’t made the connection to a charitable group yet and don’t want to switch over to the nonprofit world, here are some ideas:

100 Chicks for Charity also has a meeting that night. It’s a quarterly giving society whose members contribute $50 four times a year to a nonprofit that presents and gets the most votes at the meetings. It’s a great concept. I know $200 might seem like a lot of money to give to charity, but if you think about how much you spend to update your wardrobe seasonally, it might even out. (There’s also a 100 Dudes who Donate)

I also help put together the Giving City newsletter for DSM, which comes out monthly. It’s full of nonprofit fundraiser events, so if you’re looking for a night out on the town that also gives back, sign up!

* “Getting Involved” can be draining and energizing in the same way that establishing a new workout routing can be. I’m still working on balancing out the number of meetings I have with downtime at home, and some weeks leave me more wiped than others. So I’d advise — from experience — that you dip a toe in before committing to more organizations than you can handle. If something isn’t working out, make every effort to follow through on a commitment, but be honest and up-front about needing to back away and pitch in when and how you can.